The proper care of patients in a hospital or nursing home frequently requires that they be moved from their rooms to other locations in the facility, typically for procedures such as surgery, x-rays, or analytical testing. In those cases where the patient is non-ambulatory, such transfer requires the use of a wheelchair or a gurney. In order to transfer a patient from a bed or other support to a gurney, several personnel are needed either to lift the patient from the support onto the gurney or to pull on the patient's sheet to slide the patient laterally from the bed onto the gurney. This procedure is time consuming and difficult, especially for heavier patients and requires the medical facility to have at least several big, strong personnel on staff. Moreover, such procedures are frequently uncomfortable or even painful for more seriously injured patients, and may adversely affect their recovery.
A particular problem is faced in connection with patients that have been burned extensively. Such patients are repeatedly being moved for baths and skin grafting operations. Such repeated transfers typically instill fear and apprehension in these extensively burned patients as a result of the extreme discomfort and pain to which they are subjected. PG,3
Attempts have been made to provide devices which facilitate the transfer of a patient between a gurney and a bed. The prior art devices which have heretofore been available do not accomplish such transfer in the smoothest, most pain-free manner possible. Thus, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,700,415 and 4,837,873 to DiMatteo et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,047 to DiMatteo disclose devices for transferring a prone patient between a bed and another horizontal support. In all of these devices, both the bed and the horizontal surface include webs which move independently of one another in a lateral direction to transfer the patient from the bed to the horizontal surface and back again. However, since the webs travel independently of one another and are in no way connected, the bed and the gurney must be separated from one another during the transfer operation so that the movement of one web does not interfere with the movement of the other web. The gap between the bed and the gurney creates a region in which the patient is not supported and, hence, the transfer of patients using these devices is not conducted in a smooth and comfortable fashion.
In the patient mover disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,170 to Knouse, a web attaches to the edge of the sheet on the patient's bed so that as the web is wound onto a roller it pulls the sheet and the patient carried thereon onto an adjacent gurney. However, in order to return the patient to the bed it is necessary to repeat this process from the other side of the bed which may not be accessible for positioning the patient mover.
Thus, the need exists for an improved patient transferring device which will enable a patient to be transferred from one support surface to another support surface in a convenient and comfortable manner. There also exists a need for a system which cooperates with the patient transferring device to enable a patient to be transported from a support surface in one location of a medical facility to a support surface in a different location in a medical facility. Preferably, the patient transferring device will be simple to operate and maintain, and will cooperate with the other portions of the system to enable the transport of patients from one location to another to be accomplished in an efficient manner by a minimum of personnel.